When Every Joke is a Final Solution
Our writer Craig Wishart was not sure what to expect from the Workington Playgoers performance of Comedians but he certainly took away a lot more than he bargained for.
I admit I had virtually no understanding what to expect when I took my seat for the Workington Playgoers performance of Trevor Griffiths’ Comedians.
After all, I was barely out of the womb when the play was first performed in Nottingham in 1975 and while years that followed was important in my personal development but they were also transformative years for comedy.
And many cite Comedians as the beginning of the shift in attitudes.
By the time my sense of humour had developed, comedy had changed from the racist, sexist and homophobic jokes of the 1970s and, growing up in a more liberal society, I‘d assumed we’d moved on and put it behind us.
So when the lights came on I expected politically incorrect jokes that should have been resigned to the history books but what I watched was a message that should not be forgotten by any generation.
Comedians does not look back with love and affection on long gone, smoke-filled comedy venues, it’s not a nostalgic romp through the good old days and the title disguises some very dark and forthright themes.
It’s actually a very challenging and bold play for a local theatre company to undertake and I’m not simply referring to the topics and prejudices it tries to unravel.
Comedians requires strong performances, it needs them to get its underlying message across and the Playgoers were certainly up to the challenge. This is not a performance of quick throwaway one-liners, the dialogue can be intense at times and the characters need time to make some very pertinent points on the nature of the comedy at that time and on how society views each other.
The scripts must have taken a good deal of time to learn and were delivered beautifully.
Morgan Sweeney was wonderful as the ageing comic Eddie Waters and his emotion was palpable in the final scene which deals with one of the most horrific chapters of human history.
James Last was perfect as the challenging and confrontational Gethin Price. It can’t be easy to play an antagonist who is not actually the bad guy and James did well to tread the fine line with an uncompromising performance that could leave you squirming in your seat at times.
Marc Goodwin (George McBrain) and Stewart Grant (Sammy Samuels) brought humour and levity between bouts of being politically incorrect that bordered on the offensive and Marc Baillie, Will Tillotson and Ian Quirk dealt superbly with the conflicted emotions of their respective comics.
Richard Harris, Tony Parker, Sarah Delorme and Max Sutton admirably filled the supporting roles in this play that did not need a large cast.
Comedians is often endearing, thought-provoking and also quite harsh and brutal. The characters that choose wisely are not necessarily the one you prefer and the ones willing to follow the path of least resistance for the sake of their career are very likeable.
With the state of our modern world, our celebrities, politicians and influencers, Comedians asks questions that go way beyond the setting of a fictional Manchester classroom and the choices individuals make to succeed.
Likeable can earn plaudits, admirers and fame while what is ‘right’ often wins little more than obscurity, soul searching and life back driving buses.
Comedians is still relevant today, it’s a credit to the Playgoers they chose such a challenging topic and gave a performance that pushed me to contemplate the obvious changes in society and wonder whether other parts have barely moved on at all.
